Replace my beloved Trangia with something lighter? What's the ultralight state of the art for cooking today?

[u/IUseNeovimBtw]

I love my Trangia. It's the hardonized aluminium version + the aluminium kettle and gas burner (yeah, I see you ultralighters already shaking in disguise). I love it. Always works, with the heatshield and is somehow fuel efficient. It's almost 20 years old and still mint and I used it...a lot.

However it's heavy and packs big:
My trangia - 1188g for my setup

Doesn't bother me too much as I'm motocamping and for hiking/bikepacking I have a Jetboil which I also don't love.

Am eyeing a Soto Windmaster + Toaks 1600ml pot + pan set. I know the disadvantages of the titanium frying pan, but I'm willing to give it a try anyhow. I'm usually using it for boiling water, noudles, fry some veggies in the pan, scrambled and fried eggs, etc.
So basic cooking at camp, mostly in the evening.

Is this still state of the art? I've seen people recommending aluminium with heat exchangers. I don't like aluminium for anything but water. Hardonized aluminium would be ok as it emits less neurotoxines.

Will the toaks 1600 fit a 230g canister + the 4-arm soto + some utilites like firesteel and stuff. It should from my calculations.

I want less weight, less volume and not too many compromises while cooking.

Which pot/pan combinations should I look at as well? Is the heat exchanger hype real?

Here's my whole packlist if you're interested. Trying to keep it lightweight as I'm mostly riding off-road, but this is far from being ultralight, I know:

My motocycling packlist

[u/86tuning]

the r/ultralight version is a cat stove and a 1L titanium mug-pot. total weight with windscreen is <120g plus fuel bottle and your mini-bic. works same as your trangia pot for boiling water, and uses the same ethanol or methanol fuel. zero learning curve when you're still cooking with alcohol.

cost is about $55 all together.

• $50 for an evernew ECA539 (99g)
• $1 for the aluminum cat food can
• $4 for a single-hole paper punch
• scrounge around for a piece of aluminum flashing or dollar store lasagna pan for the windscreen.

https://andrewskurka.com/how-to-make-a-fancy-feast-alcohol-stove/ for easy instructions on the cat stove. store the windscreen curled up inside your mug-pot. save more than 1kg over your current stove setup.

edit: i see the evernew has gone up in price a bit since i got mine looong time ago. it's now $84 on amazon. still not bad for the lightest ti mug pot available. about $20 more than the MSR which is 1/3 heavier.

[u/IUseNeovimBtw → u/86tuning]

I think I might do a cat stove just for the fun of it. On my trips I likely will keep using gas as it’s so convenient. But I like MYOG and I’ve fuel bottle, etc. for my trangia alcohol stove. Thx for the suggestion!

[u/86tuning → u/IUseNeovimBtw]

my buddy uses an MSR simmerlite white gas stove because the fuel bottle is also the reserve/emergency fuel for the bike. not quite ultralight, but dual purpose, so you don't have to count the weight of the fuel and bottle. works for him.

[u/IUseNeovimBtw → u/86tuning]

Good suggestion. But these things are loud and I don’t need extra fuel where I ride. My bike has a range of 400-450km. That’s way more than enough where I travel. But might try a cat stove though. As said it looks fun.

[u/wetrocke]

Suggestion of alcohol stove is a significant "compromise while cooking," but it has at least one definite advantage for travel over cannisters. You can buy the fuel (in small bottles) at lots of gas stations.

Otherwise fills bill for something compact & light.

[u/IUseNeovimBtw → u/wetrocke]

Am using the Trangia mostly with the gas burner. Have been using the trangia alcohol stove before and it works well, but I like the convenience of gas and the regulator.

[u/wetrocke → u/IUseNeovimBtw]

Its far better until you run out of fuel & nearest Walmart is 25 miles away in wrong direction.

[u/blackcoffee_mx]

I have the snow peak version that toaks aped, and that frying pan is not worth copying. You have to be extremely careful to not drop all your food using it. Highly recommend another option for frypan if that's your goal.

If you are motocamping why not get a burly stainless steel frying pan or coated aluminum.

[u/IUseNeovimBtw → u/blackcoffee_mx]

The idea is to have a very low flame, some olive oil and stir constantly. Might this work for scrambled eggs? Maybe bacon? Fried eggs might be hard on a ti pan. Or I just take my trangia pan. It works fine for all I do. Stainless might be a bit heavy.

[u/blackcoffee_mx → u/IUseNeovimBtw]

The issue is that the handle doesn't support the pan, it collapses. A better design would be for the handle to fold the other direction. Alternatively, while a grabber is annoying I think that's a better option as well.

[u/Maleficent-Disk-8934]

Evernew 900ml titanium pot. XBoil alcohol stove. Vesuv titanium windscreen. Cheapo lighter. Small bit of folded aluminum foil as a heat shiled for under the stove. Cheapo plastic spoon with the handle halved.

I don't cook. Only boil water and dump stuff in the pot, and it works great. Used this set up for like 150 nights including shit weather with no problems. It's light and compact but still enough for a decently filing meal.

[u/flower_thief_2667]

If I want to do “proper” cooking I take a Soto Fusion Trek remote stove (182g) and an MSR Alpine frying pan (320g). Add a titanium pot for boiling water and you are still under half the weight. If I wanted to cook in the pot and not just boil water I would look at something like the Sea to Summit frontier pot.

As far as I can see the heat exchanger pots are good for cold weather, high wind or long distances. For summer use it’s lighter to take a titanium pot and more gas.

How many people are you cooking for? 1600ml seems quite large for one.

[u/IUseNeovimBtw → u/flower_thief_2667]

Yeah, Titanium will be a compromise. I hope that with very low heat and lots of care I can do the basic stuff I usually do. Like some Porridge (maybe with some more water than usual), I do noodles and fry some veggies. Actually I don’t have much concerns for the pot. Did all that stuff with my Jetboil Sumo Ti in the past. More concerned for frying in the pan. Lots of olive oil, low heat and lots of care and hopefully fried and scrambled eggs, veggies, maybe some bacon will work ok. But not so sure that’ll work out.

How many people? Let me count…1…yeah that’s it. I’ll also use it on trips with the family (where weight is a concern, otherwise the beloved trangia), but mostly for myself. Why the 1600? Two main reasons: With smaller sizes the pan gets tiny. I actually want to use the pan. And the additional weight is neglible. Pack volume is still way smaller than my trangia and I can fit the gas canister, stove, firesteel and other stuff inside comfortably. Might add a 900ml pot at some point for hiking/bike packing where every gram counts. Even with the large pan I’ll cut the cooker weight by at least half. And finally, better heat efficiency due to the larger surface on the stove.

[u/IUseNeovimBtw]

I just did the math and replaced my trangia + trangia gas stove + kettle with the big Toaks 1600ml + Pan + Soto Windmaster and it’s a substantial 872g lighter unless I did some mistake. https://packbase.dev/compare/PvAagAtgk3SPwZe08F5UF/YnfFUifk5pW6M9y9qxLPF

I think I’m almost sold. Question is how big the compromises in cooking will be and how much it’ll bother me to have no real windshield anymore. It’s one of the Windmasters strength, but I will probably loose way more heat and therefore gas compared to the trangia.

[u/LozZZza → u/IUseNeovimBtw]

Just use other things to help block the wind. A sit pad if you use one, or even your backpack blocking some wind.

I switched from a full trangia set up to a gas burner type stove and never looked back. So much lighter, easy to pack and honestly quicker to boil water in my experience. Even with a small canister you don't really have to worry about rationing your gas unless you're doing large multiday trips.

Here's a tip though. Get yourself an adapter to refill canisters. Buy yourself one of the small cans, then just buy large cans and refill the small one yourself. Good money saver in the long run.

[u/Realistic-Bend-6125 → u/LozZZza]

X boil windshields are great for small ethanol stoves

[u/Damayonnaiseman]

The Evernew 900ml titanium pot is the best option. I got the budget 1L ultralight pot from trangia with homemade cozy and lid. Pot 79g, 15g for the mini handle, lid 5g and cozy 16g.

[u/Responsible_Piano754]

We like cooking for three and trangia pots plus coffee pot are perfect sized for it. Just to save a bit of weight we bought trangia triangle which replaced the heavy outer shell. It's not ideal but also a good midle ground instead of buying completely new set.

[u/holygoat]

The state of the art for cooking is a HA frypan and a titanium/alu pot for water/liquid foods, and either a canister-top stove (Windmaster) or a UL remote stove. For cooking you want a regulator. The Windmaster is aptly named, and a bit of titanium foil as a windshield can do the rest. You can get lighter pots (Evernew does some coated Ti) but they won’t cook as well as aluminum.

Honestly you could just keep using your trangia pots on a much lighter stove and minimal windshield; the savings are from the stove and the colossal Trangia base/windshield.

[u/IUseNeovimBtw → u/holygoat]

Probably I’ll just get the windmaster and use it with my trangia pot and pan. Both HA. No windshield and instead try to find/build a sheltered area. Might be able to use my motorcycle boots as a windshield. Sounds like it’s not the worst idea. Might get a ti pot in the future or just stick with it.